The report said that in 2011, more than two-thirds of claims processors received a total of $5.5 million in bonuses.

That same year, the backlog of claims swelled by 155 percent.

The bonuses reportedly created a perverse system, where workers were encouraged to stick to simple cases in order to meet certain performance benchmarks — in turn ignoring claims that required additional attention.

“At the beginning of the month … I’d try to work my really easy stuff so I could get my numbers up,” Renee Cotter, a union steward for a Reno, Nev., chapter, reportedly said.